Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/10/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today we follow-up on some topics we’ve looked at recently because in both the digital world and the physical world with which it interacts, things can change fast.   Let’s look at some updates on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008,  ISP tracking of user click streams, and Maine’s “no it isn’t, but yes it is” dance around the Real ID Act.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/03/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Well, the Australians seem to have decided that a national ID card isn’t for them.   In the U.S., not only are we moving toward a de facto national ID card, we’re also spending a billion dollars of taxpayer money so the FBI can amass the largest biometric database in the world on U.S. Citizens – not just convicted felons or other criminals but hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of regular folks who need to apply for a job, whose parents think it’s a swell idea to register their fingerprints or iris scans when they are children, or people who are arrested by federal authorities – even park rangers – even if they are never even charged with a crime. Feel safer? Feel like you live in the land of the free?

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/26/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Think your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a utility like your electric company or phone company? Think again. These days many ISPs are looking to “monetize their assets” and guess what their assets are? That’s right, you
and me and where we go and what we do on the Internet. To monetize us, they need to track us and what we do on the Internet, and that’s what at least some ISPs are doing right now.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/12/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Topic: These days, we hear that the Internet is killing libraries. That would be a surprise to the hundreds of thousands of Mainers who find that today’s libraries are both “brick” and “click,” both physical spaces and gateways to the cyber world of information, including information we would have to pay for if we tried to access it ourselves.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/05/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Law affects technology. And technology affects law. A good example of the latter is the Real ID act which, despite opposition from over half of the states, is still being put into effect by Homeland Security. Maine offers a good example of what happens when push comes to shove in the effort to create a de facto national ID card and national database of all driving age citizens.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/29/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Need to find basic factual info quickly? The Internet has you covered. Here are a few sites that meet our info-seeking criteria: the information is free, the site is clear and well organized, and you can get to the info
you’re looking for with one click.
Weather – www.nws.noaa.gov
Phone numbers – www.whitepages.com
Word definitions – www.alphadictionary.com
Word origins – www.etymonline.com
General info – www.encyclopedia.com, www. wikipedia.com

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/15/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Topic: In these days of electronic communication, we hear a lot of talk about encrypting messages to keep their contents safe from the prying eyes of government and corporate eavesdroppers. But just what is encryption, and where did the idea come from. Here’s a little cryptography 101 primer to help us understand how encryption works.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/08/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Topic: Thirty-five years ago, Nicholas Sheridan at Xerox PARC came up with Gyricon, a process that presaged the effort to create electronic paper. Ever since, electronic paper has been, according to its promoters, “just around the corner.” Many false starts later, that claim may finally be true today . Here’s a look at some e-paper technologies that could leap out of the lab in the next few years – or sooner.

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